Being a Radioactive Isotope of Hydrogen, Tritium must have a half-life right?
So how long before my AR Iron-Sights or those ACOGs stop glowing at night?

not sure, I think somewhere around 7 years +/- 2 yrs or something like that.  I have trijicon sights on my sig pistol dated 98 and they are still bright.

From [url]http://www.trijicon.com/faq.cfm[/url]


What is Tritium?
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is an odorless, tasteless, colorless gas that reacts with the human body in the same manner as natural hydrogen. Beta rays from the tritium hit phosphors to create the glow you see. Tritium has a half-life of 12.5 years, which means that in that time the lamp will be half as bright as it originally was.

besides, with their wonderfull generous warranty.., you have nothing to worry about, my TA-31 had some greasy liquid leaking from it, i sent it back & it was returned to me completely rebuilt in less than 4 weeks !!

i remounted it on my Colt flattop & 5 shots later it was back on ZERO at 100 yds.

i believe it is the best scope ever for an AR-15 !!!

[b]AR-15NUTT:[/b]

[i]"and ever since those liquids leaked out of my ACOG, I myself have been glowing in the dark for some strange reason..."[/i]




hehehe, I'm just kiddin AR-15NUTT, Thanks for all the input guys!

I do believe that Trijicon will charge you through the nose to recharge the tritium though.

Ahhh. This explains Trijicon's 12 year warranty [:)]

I recently replaced the tritium element on an out of warranty Armson OEG.  The charge was $35 which included shipping.  Not bad I thought.

I have several pistols in my safe with the night sights, and from time to time I fret that while they lie there unused, for many years, the sights grow darker and darker.  By the time I get around to shooting them, they won't be so bright.  I wouldn't advise getting the night sights on any gun that you won't really be using.

Mike, how long did they take?  They've had my compact since beginning of September.  

I think they took about a month or so after receiving the ARMSON.  However, I once got a new compact ACOG I was sure was too dim, and I sent it back immediately.  Took more like 2 months plus change to get that one back.  They are really busy knocking out ACOGS for the military and that probably delayed the repair work on my unit.  It was only marginally brighter after I got it back.  I came to realize that I had compared an illuminated crosshair to a chevron, the chevron being way brighter.  They explained to me that the crosshair was dimmer because there was so much more to illuminate, spreading the light out over more line space than the Chevron.  I still sent it back and it came back brighter.  The scope seemed new production, but the tritium element wasn't so fresh when installed I think.

During those two months, I would call from time to time to see how the work was progressing.  They told me a minimum of a month on the ACOG if I remember correctly.  Some of that time was due to shipping to Alaska (slow) and waiting for it to get forwarding to me by my forwarding agency (really slow jerks).  Expect your unit to comeback within another month I would guess.  Praying to a Diety may help.

I use a tritium front sight AND an Aimpoint.  Luckily for me, the trit is probably at least 7 years old (I bought it used for cheap).  It is quite a bit dimmer than a new one.  I like it dim though because it doesn't interfere with the Aimpoint.  If I dump the optic or loose power the iron is just bright enough to pick out in darkness without being annoying.

Balancing a reddot and bright green dot on two different focal planes would be a pain for me, so I'm really happy with my tired old tritium.  Thank goodness for halflife I suppose.

Wow Mike, that's the exact same reason I sent my new one back too!  I have a TA50=R4, and the rep I keep in contact with (Carrie) called me and said that they have evaluated it and it is within spec, that the crosshairs just aren't as bright as a dot or triangle (more collected ret surface).  My complaint was in very dark conditions only when it is working only on tritium- In the day its as bright as anything else.  

My concern now is that she said they were shipping in back to me, but that was almost two weeks ago...

Two weeks and no show yet? [:(]  That sucks.  Interesting to hear that I am not the only one.  Maybe I should have listened to everyone else and gone with the triangle or donut.  The crosshair seems so unpopular on this board.

I still think my unit is brighter than when I sent it in, but maybe it's all in my head.  Please let me know how yours turns out! [:)]